The BEN Initiative provides technical assistance, grant writing support, capacity building and fiscal sponsorship for community based organizations and professionals working the following areas:

Birthwork

Environment & Agriculture

Nutrition Education

BIRTH

​The perinatal and early childhood periods are critical to maternal and child health and development. The BEN Initiative aims to increase access to:

• Empowered perinatal care and birth support in rural/tribal communities, including doulas and center/home-based midwifery. 
• Traditional and holistic medicine practitioners for ceremony and perinatal education​

Current Programming includes:

• Johns Hopkins University funded Awééts’áál Project: Protecting Children Through the Values of Diné Safe Sleep. The BEN Initiative is facilitating a series of workshops that will provide hands on training to small cohorts of Navajo fathers seeking to woodwork, construct and utilize a traditional Navajo cradleboard for newborn safe sleep. 
• Doula Credentialing and Access Act project: The BEN Initiative is identifying pathways and best practices for Medicaid billing in rural/tribal communities, and developing tools and resources for sustainable community based doula businesses. The BEN Initiative offers direct doula support and referral to local/regional community based doula support services. 
• Johns Hopkins University Amá Bidziil (Strong Mothers) Doula Community Research Council: The BEN Initiative serves as a member on this council to develop research tools and participate in data collection evaluating the role and impact of Indigenous Doulas within the current healthcare system (IHS). 
  

ENVIRONMENT

Our structural and physical environments play a huge role in the social determinants of a community's health. Within rural and tribal built environments, The BEN Initiative aims to establish the following:

• ​Sufficient farmland and water for young and beginner Indigenous farmers
• Shared heavy farming equipment and infrastructure
• Safe spaces to engage in play, land-based learning and ceremony

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Current programming includes:

• Fiscal sponsorship and grant writing support for small native-owned farms. 2025 sponsors include: Bidii Baby Foods/Farmer-in-REZidence Program participants, Skoden Bars, El Rio Navaho and the Shiprock Farmers Market.
• Site Development for Shiprock Farmers Market: The BEN Initiative is assisting with fundraising, infrastructure development and organizational development of the Shiprock Farmers Market, who aims to become a stand along 501c3 nonprofit with self-sustaining revenue by FY27. 
• CHIYAAN: Child Health Improvement through Youth Aggregated Ancestral Nutrition. This project supports the development of private land and a Navajo Nation commercial business site lease for traditional food processing infrastructure. 
• Farm Exhibit Sponsorship for the Gallup Children's Museum

NUTRITION

Foods consumed during perinatal and early childhood (ages 0-5) periods have a foundational and lasting impact on health outcomes. The BEN Initiative aims to reclaim nutritional abundance in rural and tribal communities across northwest New Mexico through increased access to:

• Institutional access to locally grown and traditional foods
  
• Traditional foods throughout pregnancy, postpartum and age 0-5
  
• Breastfeeding education, support/guidance and resources

Current programming includes:

• Navajo Nation ​Food Sovereignty: Advocating for the establishment of Native Farm to School and Food Manufacturing policies to increase local access to fresh produce and value added products through institutional and retail markets.
• Certified Lactation Consultant (CLC) training and exam support.